Not sure if Turbotax deducted my long term loss correctly

[zenmit]

I had $19K of short term gains from selling stocks in 2020.    I sold a long term bond in 2020 that I've owned for 7 years, at a $13K loss.   The bond is a municipal Puerto Rico bond which I bought for $15K and sold for $2K.   I was expecting Turbotax to let me deduct just $3K of the loss and carryover the rest to next year.  The software actually deducted the whole $13K loss so I'm only showing a $6K gain of investment income.  I'm okay with this, but I need to know if it's accurate.  I do have carryover loss from prior years that was not deducted, but held for next year.   Is this a software glitch or is this correct?  

[tagteam · Accepted solution]

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@zenmit wrote:

Is this a software glitch or is this correct?  

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The software is correct. In short, capital losses offset capital gains. Your $13,000 loss was used to offset your $19,000 gain leaving a net gain of $6,000.

Where there may be confusion here is that $3,000 in net capital losses is the maximum that can be used, in any one tax year, to offset all other types of income. So, if your total gains were $13,000 and your total losses were $19,000, you would have a net capital loss of $6,000. You could then use $3,000 of that $6,000 loss to offset your other income with the balance ($3,000) being carried forward to the next tax year.

See https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/investments-and-taxes/capital-gains-and-losses/L7GF1ouP8

[zenmit]

Thank you, this is very helpful.